auto gk - multiple pgc's in ifo

[HelBel65]

Hi all

I'm trying to convert 24 Series 3 into avi's with subtitles for a deaf friend. I've done this for her before (Grey's Anatomy) and found it very straightforward - my method is rip/decrypt using DVDFab and convert/compress with AutoGK. The specific issue I'm having is this (and it may be to do with it being an older DVD) - normally I find it easy to choose the right input IFO. On a disc of 4 episodes (Grey's) there's 4 IFO's, each relating to a PGC of around 42 mins duration. Easy. Having ripped this series though, and trying to run disc 1 through AutoGK, there are several IFO's, most of which show a PGC duration of 1 min or so, and one IFO that shows 6 PGC's, the first of which is 49 mins duration (too long for an episode) and the rest being of about the correct length. I have experimented a bit - put in the big IFO and waited 3 hours only to find that it had stitched together all 4 episodes into one long video - not in itself a problem except the subtitles stopped after 1 episode! Making it useless.

So my question - why are there 6 IFO's for 4 episodes, and how do I know which to use without having to use trial and error for the entire series of 6 discs! And in fact, can anyone suggest a better method?

Cheers!

[manono]

Decrypt only the episodes you want, and not the entire DVD. As you discovered, your method can sometimes lead to an AVI containing multiple episodes. Use DVD Decrypter set up in IFO Mode (not the default) to choose the episodes you want. How do you know which episodes to choose? Well, if there are 4 episodes there will be 4 episodes of approximately the same length. If that's not good enough, play the DVD either using a software player in the computer or on the standalone and both ways should have some sort of a display available to show you the length of the episode being played.

Sometimes (rarely) all four episodes are contained in the same title or PGC. In that case you decrypt by chapters. For example, if each episode contains 20 (or 21, the last being a 'dummy') chapters, and there are four episodes, each contains 5 chapters. Select the ones you want for each episode. That's not the case here, though, if you've described it correctly. You seem to have multiple titles (PGCs) within the same VTS. Decrypt each episode individually before feeding them into AutoGK.

What are the other IFOs? It depends. Maybe the DVD menu has a 'Play All' feature, in which case choosing that one will result in getting all the episodes at once. Others will be the extras, others the previews or trailers. All kinds of crap.

[manono]

double post for some reason.